ACAM250

What can popular culture – in the form of television shows, films, comedy, spoken word, music, fashion, blogging, news media and memes – tell us about the place of Asian Canadians in local, national, continental and transnational contexts? How and why has the cultural representation of “Asian Canadian” changed over time? What are the material implications of such changes?

ACAM250 – The Idea of “Asian Canadian” in Popular Culture examines popular culture as a site in and through which Asian Canadian identities and collectivities are produced. The depiction of Asian Canadians in diverse realms of popular culture, including pop culture created by Asian Canadians themselves, will be used as an entry point into our examination of Asian Canadians’ socio-economic conditions, histories and political communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of popular culture in producing Asian Canadians as racialized, gendered, classed and sexualized subjects, as well as the complicated agency in negotiating, contesting, consuming, reproducing, repurposing and otherwise participating in popular culture. We will also consider the transnationalisms of Asian Canadian popular cultures and their relationships to multiple nation-building projects, diasporic and migratory circuits, and global socio-economic and political formations.

Meet the instructor!

Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal is a faculty member in the Social Justice Institute and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies at UBC. His research concerns “for us, by us” community organizing, migration and transnationalism, queer of colour politics and Filipinx Canadian studies. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Toronto.

*Please note that ACAM 250 does not go towards the minor because it’s not a 300/400 level class.